SOMETHING TO BUILD ON – McCARTHY

3 February 2013

Nick Taylor

Midfielder frustrated by performance but wants to use recent draws as a springboard.

A vital late equaliser from Shaun Maloney yesterday against Southampton provided Wigan Athletic with their second 2-2 draw and second point in five days, something which James McCarthy feels the team can use to their advantage.

The 22-year-old said:

“The result is frustrating because before the game we obviously wanted to win but considering the position we got in towards the end then we are happy to have got a point and not lost.

“It’s a very important point in the grand scheme of things and we don’t want teams getting too far ahead of us what with the others results this weekend.

“We’ve set ourselves a foundation to go to Chelsea and achieve something because we’re now two games unbeaten in the league and we need to build on our recent two points and start achieve maximum points in games.”

McCarthy admitted that he was relieved to see Maloney score the second goal after Latics fell 2-1 behind in what he described as a tough game for the team, by saying:

“Southampton made it a difficult afternoon because they pressed us for very long periods of the game.

“They came at us strong and got players very high up the pitch and there were parts of the game which we were disappointed with how we handled that pressure.

“It was a big relief when Shaun got in at the back post to score, especially because we conceded such a poor goal when we went behind.

“I lost the ball when they hit us on the counter attack which is frustrating for me but the main thing now is that we got the point.

“We can kick on from a result like this because we’ve finished the game in a positive manner by gaining a point back so we have to focus on the positives like that.”